504 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 30. 
wanted a little attention, when, owing to tlie weather, 
jt was impossible to give it to them; and there being 
g. path-way cut out at back, to enable all work to be done 
inside in wet and cold weather. 
it. Strawberry shelf. 
Here (March 14) Cucumbers and Strawberries are alike 
fruitful and luxuriant. 
the centre. The trellis consists merely of a few rough 
spars of wood, nailed together, the size of a light, and 
crossed with string and wire. The only objection I have 
heard urged to this arrangement is, that when it is de¬ 
sirable to use such places for plant repositories, the 
space occupied by the path would be next to lost; but I 
do not see the force of the objection, as tall plants might 
be placed there, and if not wanted for that purpose, 
boards on a stage could be thrown across for setting 
smaller plants on. Again, for early work I could not 
hardly improve on the present arrangement; but if Cu¬ 
cumbers were not wanted before the approach of May, 
two four inch pipes, surrounded with rubble, with open¬ 
ings back and front to let the heat up, would be suffi¬ 
cient for both bottom and top-heat in a five-feet pit. 
10 If a tank should be considered preferable, one 
four inches deep, of iron, brick and cement, or wood, 
would obviate the necessity of high walls, unless a path¬ 
way was desirable, as in No. 2. I do not think that the 
cement for a tank in such a pit as our Correspondent’s 
would cost a great deal, and the bricks required for 
fine and chamber would be more than sufficient to 
build it. Any person, who has ever made a brewer’s 
cooling-tank, could say for what a wooden one could be 
obtained for, and that three, four, or five feet wide, four 
inches deep, divided in the middle, and covered with 
slate, would give as much heat as he would know what 
to do with, provided there were six inches of open 
rubble over the slate, and openings round, for the 
double purpose of pouring water in to command a 
moist heat, and to let that heat into the atmosphere. 
1 see, the other week, enquiries as to patching and 
securiug such a wooden-tank to make it hold water, but 
if properly made, and well beat at the joints, and red- 
leaded at the joints, there will be no difficulty in this 
matter, and no need of any covering or coating what¬ 
ever; as when ouce filled, and kept full, the continual 
swelling will prevent everything like leakage. I do not 
know how long such a wood-tank would last, but I 
know of some that have been in use fully ten yeai'3, 
little opportunity for working the syringe on the under 
side of the leaves, they were kept clean with more 
difficulty. I resolved, therefore, to change No. 1 
into a small house, No. 2, by digging out a path 
fifteen inches wide at the back, increased to some 
twenty inches for elbow room, having a small 
eighteen-inch door on the ground level in the 
hack wall, for popping in, and nothing could 
answer better. They who have grown fine Cu¬ 
cumbers in pots will at once perceive that even 
by this narrowing of the soiltfepace there is ample 
room left. The sinking of the path cost only the 
labour of removing the soil and building a four- 
inch wall, as far as the top of the soil, as the back 
wall was existing previously. In making such a 
pit, though a back wall some seven-and-a-half feet 
would be wanted, there would be no occasion for 
sinking the front wall lower than the liooring. 
Nearly one half of this was used for early 
Cucumbers, the other part had Strawberries, and 
other things on a rough stage thrown across the 
pit. It is now planted altogether with Cucumbers; 
and though there are Strawberries in good con¬ 
dition on the back shelf, they are brought there 
to swell and ripen merely. Before the Cucumbers 
were planted in the second division, though the 
same pipes heated the part appropriated to 
Strawberries, &c., they were kept cool enough j 
when flowering and setting by giving plenty of 
air. A glance at the section will give an idea 
to every gardener to how many purposes of pro¬ 
pagation, &c., the part next the curb wall may 
be applied in early spring, after the Cucumbers 
have been placed in their mound of earth in 
and are now as good and sound as ever; and that I 
partly attribute to banishing every painting and 
smearing substance from them. 
11. I would strongly advise every amateur, before 
commencing to build this season—as economy with him 
must ever be a principal motive—to turn back to the 
section given, page 337, in No. 52, the last number of 
the second volume, in which it is shown how a com¬ 
pound of pit, forcing-house and greenhouse, are all 
heated by a small wooden-tank, heated by a small 
boiler, with two iron flanges, the communication with 
the tank being kept up by two leaden pipes. I do not 
think I ever saw such an economical arrangement. I 
popped my head in this house about a month ago, and 
the sight was a very tempting one. I wished particularly 
to notice—the state of the one-and-a-half-inch thick 
boards, composing the sides of the boxes, acting as pits; 
and, thanks to the arrangement of not allowing the 
earth to touch them, and to their being merely planed, 
and not painted or smeared, they, as well as the tank, 
seemed as fresh as the day they were put up. 
So far as I recollect, there was something very sug¬ 
gestive in the whole progress of this house. I believe 
a pit was to be heated with this tank with the assist¬ 
ance of dung-linings outside. The heating power was 
found so great that the linings were not merely dis¬ 
pensed with, but the walls of the pit were removed, and 
the boundary-walls of the linings being raised were 
made the walls of a small house, with a narrow path 
round the tank. Still, there was plenty of heat and to 
spare. The back wall was therefore lowered, glass j 
sliding-sashes substituted, and a nice little greenhouse 
placed at the back, so that the roof of both places has 
one uniform slope. In very cold weather the green- j 
house has at once the necessary temperature by sliding 
a few of the sashes. 
12. Neither in the houses heated by the above wooden 
tank, nor in the pits No. 1 or No. 2, have I described 
any mode for heating the air before admitting it into 
the house, as so properly alluded to by our Corres- 
